Lidar polarization discrimination of bioaerosols

Standoff discrimination of bioaerosols based on lidar measurements of depolarized backscattered light is herein studied. Measurements were performed at four wavelengths (355, 532, 1064, and 1570 nm) over 25 pollens and 2 dusts under controlled environment at a distance of 100 m. Linear polarization measurements were performed. It is shown that discrimination between pollens can be achieved using the linear polarization of at most three of the four wavelengths, and statistical discrimination based on Mahalanobis distance is obtained for most of the 27 cases studied. (C) 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [DOI: 10.1117/1.3505877]